Rhythm Changes: Jazz Tenor Solos

The chord changes from George Gerschwin's I GOT RHYTHM have been used by jazz musicians as a vehicle for imporvisation since the 1930's. The 32 bar - A A B A - progression is simple yet demanding, repetitive yet rarely boring. Along with the blues, "rhythm changes" is without a doubt one of the most common progressions played by jazz musicians, and it has become a standard by which players skills are often measued.

All of the solos in the book are in the tenor key of C major. The chord changes presented with each transcription are based on the solist's lines and not on what the rhythm section specifically played behind them and thus should not be considered definitve. They should be used as an aid in following the basic harmonic structure and th help analize the line. Whenever the soloist played blues scale patterns over the changes, or played outside the changes, I simply used a C⁷ chord to indicate the underlying tonality. This practive of overlapping complex changes with simple lines, and the reverse, is very common. In addition to the changes with the solos, I present on the following page a few of the common variations of both the "A" section of the progression and the "B" section of bridge. Note that on THE ETERNAL TRIANGLE Rollins and Stitt use a totally different, although not uncommon, set of changes for the bridge. Starting a step higher than normal, they then descend chromatically back to the tonic.